Man Sentenced for Threatening Bloomberg

Published 3:02 pm, Monday, April 25, 2016

A Kazakh man convicted of threatening Mayor Michael Bloomberg after hacking into his computer account was sentenced Tuesday to four years and three months in prison.

Oleg Zezev, 29, also was ordered to pay nearly $1 million in restitution.

Zezev, from Almaty, Kazakhstan, was convicted of hacking into the computer system of Bloomberg's financial information company, Bloomberg LP, in March 2000. He also gained access to the billionaire founder's personal account.

At trial earlier this year, the government said Zezev had used an alias to send an e-mail to Bloomberg threatening to destroy the New York-based company's reputation if Bloomberg did not pay him $200,000.

The crime took place more than a year before Bloomberg was elected mayor.

Bloomberg, who resigned as chief executive of Bloomberg LP after being elected, testified at the trial, detailing several months of e-mail exchanges that culminated in the arrest of Zezev during a London sting.